Guys,
From the comments and mails that I've received on Walter Cronkite's experiences as a glider rider with the 101st, some of you seem to have gotten the impression that I'm a Cronkite fan. I never was.
My motive in writing the piece was to use his experience to highlight the brave glider pilots and glider infantry of World War II. Gliders, new and old, appear in Absolved. (There, I went and gave that away.) I have done immense amounts of research on them over the years, interviewing surviving pilots, visiting museums and examining the few remaining specimens of WACOs and HORSAs from the inside, studying field and tech manuals, watching old Air Corps training films, going over dimensions, Airborne unit load plans, etc.
One of the things that you must understand is that I struggle everyday to work on both the book and the blog, and the easiest thing is to find stuff that has a timely hook out of material I have previously worked on to present to you, or, to copy something I find topical and add my two cents worth.
For me, just right now, denouncing Walter Cronkite for his many failures to uphold the soldiery of the United States fighting in the field and his attacks upon the constitutional Republic of the Founders in the last half of the 20th Century is not a priority.
Also, to those of you who complain that I haven't posted any further chapters on the Net, you should know that's because I was asked not to by the publisher. The delay in the book comes principally from the fact that in order to keep the cost to something reasonable (like $20.00 or so) I have to keep it within 300 pages. Everything, and I mean everything, in the manuscript has had to be re-written with that in mind. Gone is the dual purpose of writing a novel and specific training manual of resistance -- there will be fewer technical details in the final that we hope a resistance bibliography in the back will cover. I have even chucked characters I wanted in the first one, putting them off for the second book, all with an eye to making the book affordable for mass distribution.
Perhaps, if Absolved is a success, we can put out an "Absolved ASDF Training Manual" by Kraut Mueller and Charlie Quintard, with a forward by Jack Durer.
In the meantime, please cut me some slack on Walter Cronkite.
Mike
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13 comments:
Thanks for working so hard on the book. I'm really looking foward to reading it.
When can I send you my FRN's for my pre-ordered copy?
Well Mike, I reread those comments and it looks like mine could be the reason for this post. I certainly didn't intend for it to appear that way. I could care less if anyone wants to put him on a pedestal or not, I certainly watched him after I came home as I suppose everyone else did. Right up until that lie about Tet in 68. There's an article today in WND that shows him in a far worse light than I suspect many people are aware of, that also includes several other prominant people who look to be fellow travelers along with Cronkite. Hope this note clears the air. LOoking forward with anticipation for a copy of "Absolved".
Hell yes, Mike! Do a training manual!
I don't get it. Where in the glider post does it appear that Mike is a fan of cronkite? I don't really care either way, just hate seeing anyone being labeled by others. I had to deal with a lot of that in my high school years. I did enjoy Mike's take on cronkite's glider trip and it's always nice to hear the "real" events instead of some so called jouralists idea of the truth. The recent post on the silenced 22 is a great example. While doing some research on the methods used to take out combustion engines (strictly educational) I found several different versions of the story about the silenced 22 being fired in the oval office.
Oh well, I guess history will be written by the winners, let it be us.
Weaver
Remember, folks, not all comments make the blog, and you guys don't see the emails. -- Mike
Keep up the good work, Mike!
I'll be patiently waiting for "Absolved" to be in print.
Jim
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The reality of paper-based book publishing strikes.
One of the reasons it is almost impossible to make a single opus with an American mass-publisher with any expectation of making a few bucks (almost breaking even if your time is worth $8/hr) is that the tax laws encourage publishers to over-print the book and remainder/destroy the returns and never-ordered copies rather than keep them in a warehouse as an "In-Print Book" for a few years.
The result is a flood of books that are less-complete than an author would like to accomplish, just to try to maintain an income. Pulp/soft-core novelists can crank out the words, but historical or heavy-research books don't move so fast.
I sympathize with the publisher who wants folks to buy the book, not to read all of the chapters on-line for free. Printing 10K of anything is a bit of a risk.
Will there be a cloth-bound edition with a dust jacket, printed on acid-free paper for libraries and hoarders of such things?
Cheers.
still eagerly awaiting a copy of absolved....
and i do mean EAGERLY...
I'm surprised are aren't going the self-publish route, which frees you from the requirements of publishers, yet still gives a decent shot at success.
Take, for example, Larry Correia.
http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/
He wrote a book called "Monster Hunter International", and went the self-publish route after he couldn't get regular publishers interested.
Well, the book was a major hit, and that attracted the interest of Baen Books, they bought the book (after having passed on it earlier), and are all but certain to buy the sequels.
Not only that, the book by Baen is essentially unchanged from the self-published version.
It's a great book. Baen has the first seven chapters available to read on their site, too.
http://www.webscription.net/chapters/1439132852/1439132852.htm?blurb
Anyway, if you've already got a publisher interested, good for you. Please, however, keep the print in a smaller typeface, so you can at least cram a wee bit more on those 300 pages. :)
To be honest I just thought that you were kindly not speaking ill of the dead.
I paid a premium for 'Unintended Consequences,' I'll gladly fork over a little extra for more pages of 'Absolved.' Just finish the book, screw the number of pages. It'll sell. I just want my copy autographed.
III
Yeah, I was one of the buyers of Correia's original self-published version. I recall that the book cost ~$28.00 including the shipping(and the free MHI patch. And a lot of us were happy to send him the money up front and wait for our copy. You might want to contact him and see how he did it.
emdfl
Just because Benedict Arnold was at Ticonderoga isn't a reason to not recognize the Green Mountain Boys.
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